Training records and a competence matrix

If people need a licence, a ticket or a course before they can do the work, you already keep training records of a sort. Cards live in a wallet. Certificates sit in a folder. In the UK that might be a CSCS, IPAF or PASMA card. A spreadsheet called something like "training matrix FINAL" is supposed to hold the dates. It works until someone asks a question you cannot answer quickly: is this person still current, and can you show the card?

That question turns up in ordinary weeks. A customer wants the right tickets before your team starts. Someone asks who is cleared to use a piece of equipment. A new starter went out last week and their induction is still a note on a desk. The records exist. They are just split across inboxes, folders and a sheet only one person knows how to read.

What a competence matrix is for

A competence matrix is a grid. People down one side. The tickets, courses and inductions you rely on across the top. Each cell holds a date, an expiry, and whether you have the evidence.

The columns depend on the work. They are usually plain:

• The licence, ticket or certification the work actually asks for, such as CSCS, IPAF or PASMA cards in the UK
• Working at height, manual handling, and any other course the job depends on
• First aid, fire marshal, and plant or equipment tickets
• Product or process training the work requires, plus your own induction

You do not need a column for every course anyone has ever sat. You need the ones that decide whether that person can do that job this week. A card is not the whole of competence. It shows a course was passed on a date. It does not show they have done this work lately, or read the method for this site. An expired card is still a clear stop, and a missing card is a question you can ask while there is time to book the refresher or send someone else.

Why the spreadsheet falls over

Most businesses start with a spreadsheet. One person updates it after a training day. Then the copies multiply.

• One file is on the shared drive, one was emailed to a client last quarter, and one is on a laptop that has gone out with the job. The dates do not match.
• Expiry dates are typed as text, or as "March", so they will not sort. Nothing tells you a card runs out next Tuesday.
• Leavers stay on the sheet. New starters appear after they have already been out on the job.
• The cell says yes, and the card is in a message thread, a folder named after the person, or a wallet that is not in the office.
• The matrix is not connected to the job. You can see that someone holds a ticket. You cannot see, on Thursday's job, whether the person you have planned still does.

Someone is booked on Thursday for work that needs a current ticket, such as a PASMA card in the UK. The spreadsheet says it is fine. The card expired in February. You find out when they turn up to do the work, not on Monday, when you could still have changed the plan. When the person who keeps the sheet is on holiday, the matrix is closed. A lapsed ticket then means standing someone down, and "we thought the sheet was up to date" is a thin answer.

The same gap sits next to the method statement. A RAMS often says the work will be done by a competent person. If the RAMS live in one folder and the training lives in another, you assemble that answer by hand every time a client asks.

What to keep on each record

For each person and each ticket, write the same few facts the same way, or the grid is not a grid.

1. Who it belongs to. Keep leavers, or you cannot answer a question about an old job.
2. The ticket or course, who issued it, and the card or certificate number if there is one.
3. The date completed and the expiry. If it does not expire, say so. A blank cell looks like a gap, and sometimes it is one.
4. A status you can read without thinking: current, due soon, expired, or not recorded.
5. The evidence, on that record. A scan or a clear photo of the card is enough.

"Due soon" is the status that earns its keep. Once a card has expired, the easy booking has gone. A window of the next 30 or 60 days is enough: a list of what to book this month, not a scoring system. Open the matrix once a month, and again when you staff a new job. If you only open it when a client asks, you are rebuilding it under pressure. Put new starters on it in their first week. If you send agency staff or subcontractors, you still need to know what they hold.

What to look for

You do not need a large human resources suite. Look for one record per person, with the dates and the evidence on it, and a status worked out from the expiry rather than typed by hand. You want the whole team on one view, so a gap is obvious. If only one person holds the ticket the job needs, you do not have cover.

The matrix has to meet the job. When you plan the work, check the people on it. When you are asked later, show what they held. If you still export to a spreadsheet to see who expires this month, you have bought a filing cabinet with a login. Who you send is part of running the job, which is why it belongs with job management, from the first enquiry to a finished job. Who attended, and what the customer accepted, belongs on the job sheet.

How Atlas OS^® helps

Atlas OS^® is a complete business operating system for any business, anywhere, in any sector. The operating system behind your business. It is in development. You cannot switch it on as a finished product today.

Training records in Atlas OS store expiry dates and show each one as current, due soon, expired or not recorded. You can see a lapse coming, and you can see a gap where nothing has been recorded. Onboarding and training sit with the person, and with the work they relate to, rather than in a folder nobody opens. RAMS and other documents can be attached to the job or site, and your team sees them on the job. That does not decide who is competent. It stops you reconciling two systems just before the work starts.

Run it. Connect it. Control it. Prove it.

Get early access

If you want training dates in one place, rather than in a spreadsheet only one person can find, join the waitlist. We will email you when Atlas OS opens.